By Aderogba George

Youths from the 19 northern states of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Wednesday celebrated the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Alliance Hospital, Dr Christopher Otabor for reversing medical tourism in the country.

The youths expressed their joy, saying that the patriotic zeal injected into the medical profession by Dr Otabor has help to reversed medical tourism, thus generating income for the country.

The youths who operated under the aegis of Northern Youths Association of Nigeria, expressed their appreciation, and presented to the Chief consultant orthopedic surgeon, the highest leadership award.

The youth presented to the CMD “Sir Ahmadu Bello Platinum Leadership and Northern Heroes Award.

Speaking through its president,Comrade Adams Bogoro, the group explained that
having followed the activities of the medical practitioner for long, it found him worthy to bell one of the recipients of the prestigious awards.

Bogoro described Otabor as an “Icon of Nation Building, explaining that the award was in recognition of his immense contributions and philanthropy.

He said that the CMD had performed well in the areas of human transformation and educational transformation for the benefit of humanity and the country at large.

Bogoro said that the Northern Youth Association of Nigeria found it compelling to identify with Otabor for positive contributions to humanity and the Nigerian society, to spur him to do more.

He insisted that Alliance hospital had done very well to change the narrative in medical tourism, adding that the Northern youths were in the hospital to identify with the hospital.

“We are here to identify with you on what you have been doing. You have contributed positively to the Nigerian society, so we are here to encourage you to do more.

“We have been following your antecedents for quite some time, this hospital has really done well in the area of impacting to health, It is based on this that this group deemed it fit to consider you as one of the recipients of our awards.

“Basically, the award is to spur you, the award is to encourage you, the award is to motivate you to do more.

“The award is also to serve as a catalyst for you to continue to give your best to the service of the nation as you have always been doing.

“We are one people with a common destiny as exemplified by the founding fathers of Nigeria, most especially those from the northern extraction such as Sir Ahmadu Bello, Abubarkar Tafarwa Balewa, Joseph Tarka, Mallam Aminu Kano, Sunday Awoniyi and others, may their souls rest in peace.

“As part of the convention of the group,we try as much as possible to identify with people like you who have demonstrated patriotism to the country,” Bogoro said.

In his response, Otabor who was overwhelmed with joy thanked the group for finding him worthy for the award.

He commended the youth for organizing, and not joining the badwagon in the society.

“This is quite commendable. When you have many youths constituting themselves as a problem to the country by getting involved in terrorism, banditry and armed robbery, here you are organising yourselves for a good course, yours is commendable.

“On behalf of the management of Alliance Hospital and the highly respected top management staff, I wish to formally accept this award, the Saudana Award. Thank you very much for considering me fit for this prestigious award .

I want to assure you that this would encourage us to do even more of what you have already seen in me,” he said.

“I warmly welcome you to Alliance Hospital, Abuja. A one-stop shop for multi-specialty care.

Alliance Hospital was established in 2011, with a clear mandate of stopping medical tourism, because medical tourism has been a big shame to this country.

” With a population of over 200 million people, our nationals are going out of the country for medical care- to India, Egypt, USA and other countries.

“A lot of people talk about the problem and not many people talk about the solution, so I decided that we would be part of the solution rather than just talking about the problem.

“We invested heavily in equipment and also got the best hands in the country. And I can assure you that we are achieving the purpose for which Alliance Hospital was set up,” Otabor said. (NAN)